The Oxford Stage Company, one of the UK's leading touring companies, has obtained the theatre rights for Junk, Melvin Burgess' controversial and award-winning new novel for children. The book, and now the play, tells the story of two fourteen-year-old runaways whose lives descend into prostitution and heroin addiction.

The Oxford Stage Company, one of the UK's leading touring companies, has obtained the theatre rights for Junk, Melvin Burgess' controversial and award-winning new novel for children. The book, and now the play, tells the story of two fourteen-year-old runaways whose lives descend into prostitution and heroin addiction. Junk has repeatedly made headlines in the UK over the past few months. It was awarded the Carnegie Medal this summer, by a judging panel of adults and children, as an outstanding book for children, and was also shortlisted in the children's category for the Whitbread Book of the Year 1997.

The stage version is adapted and directed by Oxford Stage Company's artistic director John Retallack. It will tour the UK with its teenaged cast from January 1998 as part of the company's Making the Future project which aims to bring new writing for young people to a wider audience.